And this is true for amateur golfers too.
So spending time practicing those approach shots, although I think it's
hard to practice those, will probably pay off in your score.
He also makes very interesting points like you should really try and
drive the ball as far as you can, don't worry so much about the accuracy.
If you can gain 10 or 20 yards and
be a little bit less accurate, that's going to help your score also.
But if you really golf and you really care about your score, every
shot counts will improve you and certainly improve your understanding of the game.
And I know it's available at Barnes and Noble.
I've seen at the Houston Barnes and Noble in River Oaks like 20 copies on the shelf.
because I think everybody there golfs.
Okay, so let's talk about what happens if you want to
figure out how many strokes were gained on every shot, starting from the tee shot.
So Mark looked at based on how far you are from the hole, up to 600 yards.
You're on the tee, you're in the fairway, you're in the sand or
some place where you need a recovery shot, where basically,
you've got a really obstructed view or something like that.
So for instance, if you start 300 yards away, you'll need
usually 3.71 strokes from the tee to hole out, little bit less than four.
And if you were 300 yards away in the sand for
an extra 4.04 strokes, and if you were
like the trees were bugging you and stuff like that, you would need 4.2 strokes.
So let's look at a hole here, a sequence of four shots where you hit a par,
you got a par 4.
Its a 400 yard par 4.
Its going to be an unusual sequence of shots but you can break down the shots
gained or lossed on each shot and you'll see it'll come out.
There's basically no shots gained or
lossed on that hole net because you got a par 4.
But let's suppose the first tee shot was horrible.
It was only 120 yards.
That would be like one of my tee shots on a good day and
I would end up 280 yards from the hole.
Then I'm 280 on the fairway.
So I'm 280 yards from the hole on the fairway and
the next shot puts me in the sand 60 yards away.
Then I make a pretty good shot, I chipped from the sand, then I end up 20 feet out.
And then amazingly enough, I make the putt so I got a par 4.
So how do we break this down?
So we start out 400 yards away.
We needed 3.99 strokes.
And we ended up by 280 yards away, we need 3.65.
So basically, we gained 0.34 strokes on that shot, but we used up one stroke.
So, you take the starting strokes needed minus the ending strokes minus one.
That was a horrible shot, it lost 0.66 strokes.
All right, so I'm 280 yards away.
I need 3.65 strokes.
I hit it in the sand 60 yards away.
I need 3.15 strokes.
So that shot sort of gained me 0.5 less strokes, but I used up a stroke.
So I gain minus 0.5.
Okay, now I'm in the sand 60 yards away, I need 3.15 strokes.
And I go to the basically 20 feet away on
the green, now I need 1.87 strokes.
That shot helped me by 1.28 strokes.
I used up one stroke.
That stroke gave me 0.28 strokes.
Okay, now I'm 20 feet away, I need 1.87 strokes on average to hole out from there.
And I made the putt.
So I gained 1.87 strokes and gave up one stroke so I gained a net of 0.87.
And when you add that together, you get minus 0.01 stroke, or pretty much a wash.
So taking these basic concepts and working with these,
Mark can really tell you a lot about golf.
He can also tell you where should you aim a putt.
Usually you should aim a putt beyond the hole.
Basically you don't want to leave it short.
And so how do you determine how far beyond the hole to aim the putt?
Well, it depends.
Is the putt uphill?
Is the putt downhill?
It depends on the STIMP ratio, which is sort of, so
uphill or downhill, you measure by the slope, by the angle of the incline.
And then the STIMP ratio is how fast the green is.
So Mark has this all figured out.
And, believe me, buy his book and you will learn a ton about golf using basic math.
And, I can't say enough good things about the analysis Mark did.
I mean, there's work to be done, I'm sure.
But, he did a fantastic job.
And, if you want to see ratings of golfers, my friend, Jeff Sagarin,
has ratings in Golf Digest that you may want to check out.
Okay, and there is fantasy sports for golf, as I mentioned, on DraftKings.
Okay, well that seems to be our last video, so I hope you've enjoyed the class.
Let us know.